Ink jet printing systems are well known in the art. Generally speaking, ink jet printing systems fall into two main categories--continuous-jet and drop-on-demand.
In both categories, droplets are formed by forcing a printing fluid, or ink, through a nozzle. Hence, the ink-jet devices typically include a multitude of very small diameter nozzles. Drop-on-demand systems typically use nozzles having openings ranging from 30 to 100 .mu.m while continuous-jet systems typically use nozzles having openings ranging from only 10-35 .mu.m.
One deficiency of prior art continuous jet ink-jet systems is that they are not suitable for printing and coating with high viscosity printing and coating fluids, respectively. However, printing with high viscosity printing fluids and coating of printed substrates with a high viscosity coating fluid are desired for many applications, such as on textiles and for overprint coatings, respectively.